Georgia (428 U.S. 153). In that case, the Supreme Court finally ruled specifically that capital punishment was not inherently necessarily cruel or unusual, and therefore, was not a violation of the Eighth Amendment in and of itself (Schmalleger, 2008).

Since Gregg, the issues surrounding the Eighth Amendment constitutionality of capital punishment relate to the specific methods of implementation in light of evidence that lethal injection, the most common method used by states, may violate the prohibition against cruelty by virtue of the frequency of mistakes that prolong suffering unnecessarily (Schmalleger, 2008; Zalman, 2008). In addition to Eighth Amendment issues, capital punishment also raises equal protection issues in connection with suggestions of differential application with respect to minority defendants and those who are economically disadvantaged (Dershowitz, 2002).

Personal Opinion:

In many ways, the extensive constitutional protections afforded by the Bill of Rights interfere with efficient law enforcement efforts by the state....
[ View Full Essay]